[VGC] Saints Row reboot is dividing fans as Volition says it ‘won’t back down’

[Firima]

People are really attached to Gat, Pierce, Kinzie, etc, so they decided to become racist incels when the new game and cast were revealed?

lmao I'd be ashamed of myself if that's the first conclusion I came to. Like, I'd just log off the internet and go work on bettering myself for awhile.

 

[RecLib]

Yeah the fortnite complaints are especially delusional because Saints Row was doing goofy colourful character designs, including people in mascot suits and all that shit, YEARS ago.

Its the other way around. Fortnite has a heavily saints row aesthetic to it.

 

[Rosebud]

Personally, it's because when I first searched for the trailer, these were what I was greeted with:

Click to shrink...

They REALLY hate that girl, huh...

People are really attached to Gat, Pierce, Kinzie, etc, so they decided to become racist incels when the new game and cast were revealed?

lmao I'd be ashamed of myself if that's the first conclusion I came to. Like, I'd just log off the internet and go work on bettering myself for awhile.

Click to shrink...

Yes, they really hate this aesthetic in particular because they actually look like real modern people.

Smh... it was posted in the last page

 

[RecLib]

People are really attached to Gat, Pierce, Kinzie, etc, so they decided to become racist incels when the new game and cast were revealed?

lmao I'd be ashamed of myself if that's the first conclusion I came to. Like, I'd just log off the internet and go work on bettering myself for awhile.

Click to shrink...

just ignoring all the posts of youtube videos with thousands of views complaining about it being Woke sjw garbage and all the twitter harrasment to this vein the devs are getting eh.

 

[Thordinson]

People are really attached to Gat, Pierce, Kinzie, etc, so they decided to become racist incels when the new game and cast were revealed?

lmao I'd be ashamed of myself if that's the first conclusion I came to. Like, I'd just log off the internet and go work on bettering myself for awhile.

Click to shrink...

Except there's plenty of evidence that the backlash is partially because of racism and misogyny.

 

[PennyPasta]

okay i genuinely cannot understand the comparisons to fortnite's artstyle. have these people actually ever looked at fortnite or do they just want to rag on whatever's popular these days?

 

[JuniperAndSage]

Both the tweets cited by the article in the OP are from people I previously blocked. Which means this is not the first time they've instigated/participated in this kind of right-wing attack on games or comics or whatever. It's always the same people. The criticism is never in good faith. Half the time they aren't even fans of whatever they're complaining about.

 

[MarvelousIntent]

Most of the hate I've seen is from fans of Saints 1 and 2 complaining that it's not a remake of 2. Frankly, it just looks like more Saints Row to me, but I've never played the first two. And I don't know what there is to hate about these character designs. I like the mascot guy and the dork that looks like his mom dresses him. I feel like a lot of people who're hating on this game have never played 3/4 or have some rose-tinted glasses on. Ya'll remember the dubstep gun?

 

[Mesoian]

SR is not the franchise to do that, it's always had prominent representation. Not always done 100% right, imo, but in a time where it was white bald dudes everywhere, it felt refreshing having people that liked more like me in a game. It's frustrating when especially white people over the internet are telling me that not liking the game makes me racist, get back to me when you actually know what the minority experience is in this country and then we'll talk.

Sorry, I'm not upset at you directly, I'm frustrated at the situation and went on a rant there at the end haha

Click to shrink...

It's one thing to be slightly disappointed that Saint's Row no longer embodies the language of counter culture the way it started out doing. It's another to literally ignore the very prominent ideals of corporate fondling that goes on in 2, 3 and some of 4 because it doesn't fit your narrative. Saint's Row has always been about gang escalation. You go from becoming the biggest gang to becoming the biggest corporation to becoming the biggest military presence to becoming the biggest government. It's always been corporate and one of it's biggest themes is riding on the hottest trends in order to gain as much money and prosperity as possible.

And to be perfectly honest, in 2021, I don't know what counter culture looks like. We have people showing up to the Nitrous party wearing alligator shoes and prata watches. Punk is dead, hiphop is now more corporate than ever. There's nothing more counter culture than a bunch of 20 something's complaining about how fucked up the systems are while purically lashing out at whoever they can knowing that nothing they do will make a difference.

But like, all we have of this game is a CG trailer and people are like "oh I'm mad" when it's literally the same attitude and look the series has had for..what...16 years? Sus.

 

[Crossing Eden]

They REALLY hate that girl, huh...



Yes, they really hate this aesthetic in particular because they actually look like real modern people.

Click to shrink...

They REALLY hate that girl, huh...



Yes, they really hate this aesthetic in particular because they actually look like real modern people.

Smh... it was posted in the last page

Click to shrink...

What is it about the is character in particular that would get the ire of gamers compared to brunette male voiced by Troy baker #18836793047? 🤔 Real thinker.

 

[Mesoian]

People are really attached to Gat, Pierce, Kinzie, etc, so they decided to become racist incels when the new game and cast were revealed?

lmao I'd be ashamed of myself if that's the first conclusion I came to. Like, I'd just log off the internet and go work on bettering myself for awhile.

Click to shrink...

I mean that's a more logical complaint than, "I don't know bunch of kids...floppy hair...where are the girls in catsuits? Don't like it, fucking sucks", talking around a bunch of stuff that makes literally no sense so they can avoid what they're ACTUALLY thinking.

What is it about the is character in particular that would get the ire of gamers compared to brunette male voiced by Troy baker #18836793047? 🤔 Real thinker.

Click to shrink...

WHAT INDEED.

 

[Bossking]

Ya'll are probably gonna want to watch the new gameplay footage before continuing this thread.



This legit looks like the Saints Row 2 sequel I always wanted. God, even the cutscene direction looks like 2. The environment looks incredible.

Missed the new thread as well, linking that here

 

[Thordinson]

What is it about the is character in particular that would get the ire of gamers compared to brunette male voiced by Troy baker #18836793047? 🤔 Real thinker.

Click to shrink...

It's certainly just her hipster clothes and her Gen Z hair cut...That has to be it...

Right...?

 

[Trup1aya]

Game looks like an improvement over the last view.

new characters don't seem any more or less ridiculous than earlier games

 

[Spehornoob]

They REALLY hate that girl, huh...



Yes, they really hate this aesthetic in particular because they actually look like real modern people.

Smh... it was posted in the last page

Click to shrink...

The idea of Saints Row going "woke" is so stupid when you could literally play as a transgender, pansexual Boss of any race by 4 (and it was used as a selling point even then!)

 

[Mesoian]

Ya'll are probably gonna want to watch the new gameplay footage before continuing this thread.



This legit looks like the Saints Row 2 sequel I always wanted. God, even the cutscene direction looks like 2. The environment looks incredible.

Missed the new thread as well, linking that here

Click to shrink...

Yup, this looks great. I'm here for it.

 

[Kinsei]

The game just isn't what a lot want from Saints Row. The new info today did nothing to change that.

SR3 was the worst thing to happen to this franchise.

 

[Tankard]

I really don't get the issue with the trailer, I guess reading this thread i'm not alone.

Looking forward to Saints Row as always.

 

[Firima]

just ignoring all the posts of youtube videos with thousands of views complaining about it being Woke sjw garbage and all the twitter harrasment to this vein the devs are getting eh.

Click to shrink...

Those channels are hammers and are going to make videos about everything that looks like a nail, and this has been going on for so long that I would've expected we all had learned not to point to to 2AFan1776's YT channel as a meaningful motivation behind people not liking stuff.

 

[The Gold Hawk]

The idea of Saints Row going "woke" is so stupid when you could literally play as a transgender, pansexual Boss of any race by 4 (and it was used as a selling point even then!)

Click to shrink...

Weird youtube Alt-right grifters who have, yet again, misunderstood a piece of entertainment

 

[Mesoian]

Those channels are hammers and are going to make videos about everything that looks like a nail, and this has been going on for so long that I would've expected we all had learned not to point to to 2AFan1776's YT channel as a meaningful motivation behind people not liking stuff.

Click to shrink...

The wouldn't be nails at all if the vocal minority weren't screaming about it.

Honestly, the fact that people who aren't down with this can't define why they're not down without without contradicting what the game has been for literally over a decade speaks volumes here.

 

[Steven]

If they just released a gameplay trailer instead of whatever it was that we got...I'm pretty sure this would be a non-issue.

 

[Irishmantis]

The game just isn't what a lot want from Saints Row. The new info today did nothing to change that.

SR3 was the worst thing to happen to this franchise.

Click to shrink...

That's what happens when the game fanbase is split into 3 audiences

SR2 crowd
SR3 crowd
SR4 crowd

unfortunately not possible to please everybody

but they prob went the right decision of aiming around SR3 as a medium

 

[JohnnyToonami]

This looks great and is exactly what I wanted out of a new SR. The main character design that they showed off is damn close to what I usually try to use in games so that's great.

 

[RecLib]

The wouldn't be nails at all if the vocal minority weren't screaming about it.

Honestly, the fact that people who aren't down with this can't define why they're not down without without contradicting what the game has been for literally over a decade speaks volumes here.

Click to shrink...

Basically want to empty quote this. A lot of people revealing themselves in this thread.

 

[demondance]

A lot of trailer hate is drivebys and community whining. So yeah, Saints Row was always diverse, always about reflecting an over the top take on youth culture. But a lot of people are still going to hate on that kind of thing on sight.

And on top of that, there's plenty of people who make nerd rage their hobby who never understood the things they claim to love. The type of people who get legitimately mad that Star Trek has gone "woke" and "socialist" and so on.

There's even people in this thread talking about how it looks too focus grouped, too "hello fellow kids" when that's exactly the vibe of the first two games. Intentionally so.

The type of representatives of the urban youth culture of the time, except looking more like they'd be in the worst music video or dumbest commercial rather than people you'd see in the street. They looked more like the incredibly commercial Black Eyed Peas than anybody actually thought of as cool at the time!

The psychedelic nonsense of 3 and 4 was basically an excuse to allow the games to keep going without feeling instantly dated. Now they're back to that original concept. You're just old now.

 

[noinspiration]

I very much appreciate that the response from the developers was basically "go fuck yourselves."

 

[Zebesian-X]

Things like this "looks too focus tested" or "Designed by an algorithm" really read to me as people complaining about it being an SJW game without saying those words because they know it'll get them actioned.
I have seen those exact kind of phrasings used in KIA style communities.


You can look at the twitter replies that Volition/Saintsrow are getting to see where a lot of this motivation actually comes from.

Click to shrink...

Mhm, 100%

 

[Jobbs]

I promise I'm not an incel or alt right and I thought this trailer was the most cringe terrible uncomfortable to watch piece of terribly written focus group drivel I've ever seen in my life

 

[Spehornoob]

That's what happens when the game fanbase is split into 3 audiences

SR2 crowd
SR3 crowd
SR4 crowd

unfortunately not possible to please everybody

but they prob went the right decision of aiming around SR3 as a medium

Click to shrink...

But I like all of those games!

 

[SunshinePuppies]

But like, all we have of this game is a CG trailer and people are like "oh I'm mad" when it's literally the same attitude and look the series has had for..what...16 years? Sus.

Click to shrink...

lmao, there it is. Miss me with that shit, I would bet my lunch money I'm darker skinned than a solid 90% of this website, you're not gonna dismiss my opinion like that

the reason why the first couple of games especially resonated with me so much is because I felt like it gave me some agency during a time where POC were even less prominent in media than they are now. Rising through the ranks and fucking over the status quo was a power fantasy that felt allegorical to what I wish I could do or what someone that looks like me could do, even though I know that real life would never play out that way. the cast in those games felt more scrappy to me, at least at the time and context of the broader media landscape. the escalation in each game felt earned (to a point, it started to get ridiculous tbh). I'm just not getting that vibe here from that initial trailer.

maybe I'm getting older, I'm in a different place in my life, or maybe the slight improvements in representation in media makes this feel cheaper to me by comparison, idk. But I'm not about to let folks who don't know what it's like to be treated different based off your skin color to tell me to sit down

 

[Irishmantis]

But I like all of those games!

Click to shrink...

Me too haha we win regardless (assuming you like what you see so far)

but there are a lot who be more focused on one of them

 

[cowbanana]

I promise I'm not an incel or alt right and I thought this trailer was the most cringe terrible uncomfortable to watch piece of terribly written focus group drivel I've ever seen in my life

Click to shrink...

I will co-sign this. As someone who is happily married <- not incel. And I'm not alt-right either. Just right :)

 

[haveheart]

The setting reminds me of Total Overdose so I'm in! I like the setting and the characters, feels quite fresh to me, don't know what some people are complaining about.

 

[AuthenticM]

On the gameplay aspect of the franchise, there was no ramping things up even more after Saints Row 4 introduced literal superpowers, aliens and VR and shit. A GTA-4-like return-to-basics was needed.

On the narrative side, there was really nothing more to do with the old characters. They all had complete arcs. So ditching them for new characters made sense.

Also, real being real, I bet a good deal of the dislike for the game so far stems from the fact that all four characters are queer-coded.

 

[Mesoian]

lmao, there it is. Miss me with that shit, I would bet my lunch money I'm darker skinned than a solid 90% of this website, you're not gonna dismiss my opinion like that

the reason why the first couple of games especially resonated with me so much is because I felt like it gave me some agency during a time where POC were even less prominent in media than they are now. Rising through the ranks and fucking over the status quo was a power fantasy that felt allegorical to what I wish I could do or what someone that looks like me could do, even though I know that real life would never play out that way.

maybe I'm getting older, I'm in a different place in my life, or maybe the slight improvements in representation in media makes this feel cheaper to me by comparison, idk. But I'm not about to let folks who don't know what it's like to be treated different based off your skin color to tell me to sit down

Click to shrink...

How

Has

That

Changed?

Seriously? These games have ALWAYS been about the exact thing you're describing, with the only thing changing being the scale of the playing field.

This is what I don't understand, people keep pointing to SR1 and 2 as some crazy bastion of disenfranchised power fantasy when the root of the story is mired in family betrayal and infighting, with the actual message behind them being "you can't trust anyone". 3 is the only time that the power fantasy through loyalty and respect actually works and that's when you're fighting to take down other venture capitalists who want to control the city through money (via different avenues).

Like the only thing that's REALLY REALLY changed is the fact that the Saint's aren't stereotypical 90's spike lee style gang bangers anymore and are something more neutral, so everyone can imprint on the story instead of people who are adjacent to or enamored with inner city culture from two decades prior. So what's there to be mad at? Why is this bad? How is this different? Because they stopped trying to ape Juice and started trying to ape The French Connection?

 

[Deleted member 35618]

"When I was 20 the characters were 30 and that made me feel cool, but now I'm 30 and all the characters are 20 and I can't relate anymore."

Click to shrink...

LMAO, this. Gamers are the biggest babies.

 

[Irishmantis]

Watch this game turn out to be their best seller haha

 

[Gentlemen]

the 'it looks like fortnite for kids' crowd should probably be more specific if they want to avoid being accused of dogwhistling. Saints row 3 had Professor Genki costumes, weapons and vehicles.

 

[Spring-Loaded]

How

Has

That

Changed?

Seriously? These games have ALWAYS been about the exact thing you're describing, with the only thing changing being the scale of the playing field.

This is what I don't understand, people keep pointing to SR1 and 2 as some crazy bastion of disenfranchised power fantasy when the root of the story is mired in family betrayal and infighting, with the actual message behind them being "you can't trust anyone". 3 is the only time that the power fantasy through loyalty and respect actually works and that's when you're fighting to take down other venture capitalists who want to control the city through money (via different avenues).

Like the only thing that's REALLY REALLY changed is the fact that the Saint's are stereotypical 90's spike lee style gang bangers anymore and are something more neutral, so everyone can imprint on the story instead of people who are adjacent to or enamored with inner city culture from two decades prior. So what's there to be mad at? Why is this bad? How is this different?

Click to shrink...

yep

the nerd rage is dumb no matter how you slice it, either "fans" are mad because they:

1) hate bipoc women

and/or

2) insist this tone and style are somehow antithesis to the schlock the series was born into

 

[Mesoian]

"When I was 20 the characters were 30 and that made me feel cool, but now I'm 30 and all the characters are 20 and I can't relate anymore."

Click to shrink...

 

[NinjaScooter]

Never listen to gamers

 

[disparate]

"When I was 20 the characters were 30 and that made me feel cool, but now I'm 30 and all the characters are 20 and I can't relate anymore."

Click to shrink...

One of the gang is a grown ass MBA grad iirc

 

[Irishmantis]

the 'it looks like fortnite for kids' crowd should probably be more specific if they want to avoid being accused of dogwhistling. Saints row 3 had Professor Genki costumes, weapons and vehicles.

Click to shrink...

We have to get Fortnite somewhere in the OT now haha

Saints Row |OT| A Fortnite success

 

[Lost Lemurian]

I only played 2, Third and IV... I think I only played the demo for 1. But for all of them I was mostly goofing around in the campaign in coop, so while I did the story, admittedly there is alot I don't remember... also, I think IV came out about 8 years ago at this point and I don't have the best memory.

Honestly, while I don't like the designs, I will at least try this, especially if it hits game pass. I'm always after new coop games.

Click to shrink...

Interesting. I wondered, because - to me, anyway - the new characters don't seem any less "gangster-like" than the lieutenants from the previous games, who have always skewed more innocent and likeable. Well, except in SR1.

 

[Firima]

The wouldn't be nails at all if the vocal minority weren't screaming about it.

Honestly, the fact that people who aren't down with this can't define why they're not down without without contradicting what the game has been for literally over a decade speaks volumes here.

Click to shrink...

The whole point about nails is that when you're a hammer, everything looks like a nail. For these YT channels, making videos like this is their bread and butter. Everything is a nail. Giving them any weight is like news articles about "Twitter is saying" and it's like three people.

I'm not a fan of Volition throwing out the old crew because Agents of Mayhem bombed and that was likely part of

Spoiler: Not even sure why I'm hiding this since it doesn't seem to matter anymore

their two-pronged strategy to split the timeline in accordance with the ending of Gat Out of Hell.

It just seems like there was a lot to salvage instead of rebooting with plucky kids, although my biggest complaint about a potential reboot was that people seemed to really want to go back to 2008-era gang sim, which was popular back then, but is nonexistent now for multiple reasons, and SR had grown past that. I wanted them to dial back the nonsense but stay the course in terms of established story, and I got neither what I was hoping for nor what so many people said they wanted.

 

[KillLaCam]

It's probably a bit too late to go back anyway.

Gameplay looks fine but I already dislike the characters from the trailer. In the gameplay trailer they said "we made characters you'd want to invite into your living room" and that they're relatable. Which is the exact opposite of the type of characters I want in this type of game

 

[Siresly]

I used to not understand what this supposed upset was supposed to be about. Now I don't understand what people are even talking about with their Fortnite fellow kids arguments. These looked like videogame characters to me, like any other Saints Row ones. There's less purple and they look less like caricatures, maybe?

And of course the Gamergate shitheads and grifters are piggybacking on it because there's a woman, a black woman even. That's doubly offensive to these overly sensitive, censor-happy fuckshits. As if more reason to ignore this nontroversy was needed.

My only problems with this game so far is Embracer's lackadaisical attitude towards directors doing things like signal boosting a site for Nazis, pedophiles and terrorists.

And that what they've shown so far has failed to reginite my interest in Saints Row. CG trailers are generally worthless. They showed like 20 seconds of the game and it looked fine, I guess. But I found no hook amidst that scattered edit. SR3 was appreciated because it went completely out there with ridiculous nonsense and a devil may care attitude. But that feeling reinvigorating had a limited shelf life. SR4 had diminishing returns and had the be the last along those lines. Taking things back a notch more towards the origins makes sense, but I don't know what I'm looking for from these games any longer. Possibly nothing at all.

 

[Mesoian]

It just seems like there was a lot to salvage instead of rebooting with plucky kids, although my biggest complaint about a potential reboot was that people seemed to really want to go back to 2008-era gang sim, which was popular back then, but is nonexistent now for multiple reasons, and SR had grown past that. I wanted them to dial back the nonsense but stay the course in terms of established story, and I got neither what I was hoping for nor what so many people said they wanted.

Click to shrink...

So I feel this, but at the same time, the question still remains, where do you even go at the end of Saint's 3, let alone Saint's 4. There's something to be said about the Saint's, as a government, requiring a lot more external hands to control things as things grow and grow and grow, but there's really only two outcomes there. You're focusing on a Saint's based subsect that's under one of the main gang members and you're doing odd jobs around wherever, just like you were doing when you were coming up, or the Saint's become so big that they're the villains and you're a rag tag bunch looking to take THEM down.

There's nothing really compelling from being at the top and just...staying there. It was the problem with 4, having all the keys to the kingdom didn't leave a lasting memorable experience. They did spinoffs, they did weird future tect, they did time travel...

Just reboot the thing and tell a new story. I bet the story's not even gonna be that new.

 

[Chie Satonaka91]

Outside of playing 2 briefly I have limited experience with the series, but someone described how saints row 4 ended teasing what 5 would be about and I would much rather see that than a reboot.